In certain hunting situations, particularly when the hunter is an archer, it is necessary that the hunter remain stationary in a concealed vantage point and that the target comes within range of the vantage point. In the hunting of deer, the unpredictable wanderings of the animal make it unlikely that a deer will by chance approach within about twenty-five yards of the vantage point, namely the maximum effective range of the average bow hunter.
Although teams of hunters and packs of dogs can be used to comb an area of forest and drive any surrounded deer to a waiting hunter, such techniques require considerable effort, planning and expense. Techniques for luring or decoying deer have earlier been proposed, but such techniques have often involved decoy devices of impractacally large size or weight, or have been of limited effectiveness.
Accordingly, the art has included several devices which are designed to attract deer into close proximity of a hunter. Such devices have included decoys as well as attracting features which use scent and/or visual effects.
While somewhat effective, even these devices have remained less than totally effective for several reasons. One such reason is due to the continuous and unchanging nature of the display and the attracting elements of the display. That is, the visual or scent features of the device are continuously sent forth in an unchanging pattern. A deer decoy that merely stands in one place without moving is an example of a continuous and unchanging visual effect. Even decoys that are subject to wind movement move in such constant fashion as to be considered as being unchanging.
Since animals are, by nature, skittish and prone to move about and into and out of hiding, such continuous displays are not natural. Thus, while such displays may momentarily attract attention of an animal, the artificial nature thereof will be sensed by the animal, and the animal will either be frightened off or will quickly lose interest and move on, thus defeating the desired result of the attracting device. The stationary nature of the display may also cause it to be totally overlooked and hence ignored.
A further reason for the less than totally effective results achievable using such known devices is the lack of a complete use of the animal's senses. That is, some presently available devices use visual means alone, or scent alone, or a combination of visual and scent. However, animals use all of their senses, including visual, hearing, scent and some sight to investigate an object. The lack of a means for exiting one or more of these senses may vitiate the effectiveness of an attracting device for the above-discussed reasons.
Therefore, there is a need for an apparatus for attracting game animals, such as deer, which stimulates the main senses used by such animals to detect and investigate an object, in a manner that is not likely to frighten the animal or be ignored or cause the animal to lose interest before it is attracted into range.